- Rudolph Brown/Staff Photographer
David Wong, managing director of Peak Bottling Company, points to some of the filters used to process Catherine's Peak Pure Spring Water.
McPherse Thompson, Assistant Financial Editor
The following story, published in last Friday's Financial Gleaner, is being repeated today because the name of the company was incorrectly stated
PEAK BOTTLING Company, bottlers of Catherine's Peak Pure Spring Water, has invested US$120,000 (about J$6.48 million) into a new automated bottling line as part of the efforts to increase efficiency at the small but expanding company, which began nine years ago.
Located in Catherine's Peak in the hills of the Blue Mountain area of St. Andrew, the latest acquisition has brought to about $10 million the total investment in infrastructural development at the facility, according to David Wong, the company's managing director and one of its first directors.
And although the new line is still being fine-tuned, Mr. Wong said it has the capacity to produce up to 2,000 cases of bottled water daily, and is superior to the manual method they had been using before.
The new machine, commissioned about two weeks ago, automatically fills the bottles with the finished product and caps them, but workers still package them manually. However, Mr. Wong said they have also invested in an automated packaging machine that will be commissioned shortly, thereby eliminating another aspect of human contact in the small factory.
The brainchild of Tony Kelly, former master brewer at Desnoes & Geddes, Peak Bottling Company began as a pilot plant, and was born out of an idea conceived during his sojourns abroad. Mr. Wong said that during Mr. Kelly's travels, he saw bottled water being sold in supermarkets and other places and thought that was something that could be tried in Jamaica.
Among the original investors was Beverley Lopez, the incumbent president of the island's most powerful business lobby, the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ). However, with the company in an expansion mode, Catherine's Peak water has attracted other investors, among them Charles Johnston, who has substantial interests in the shipping industry, as well as his brother, David.
Mr. Wong, in an interview with the Financial Gleaner during a tour of the plant recently, said that from a pilot project which began in the mid-1990s, Peak Bottling Company has developed to the point where they were now achieving yearly sales of $150 million. Apart from the local market, the company now exports to the Cayman Islands, Antigua and, to a lesser extent, Miami and New York in the United States.
Conscientious of the susceptibility of water to contaminants if there are no quality controls and standards, processing of the commodity begins in a small catchment area in the hills above the factory. The management has adopted the notion "Above All Others" as the company's motto because, as Mr. Wong explains, in the area above the spring, from which they source the water, no farming takes place, there are no livestock, housing or businesses all that is there is "just the catchment and vegetation." Therefore, he says, there is no risk of pesticides, coliform or other contaminants seeping into the water.
The spring water is carefully processed to ensure it maintains its intrinsic quality by the time it is ready to be bottled and shipped off to the various markets.
From a catchment spring in the hills of Catherine's Peak, the water is channelled through special piping to a large tank that has been specially built to allow constant overflows, thereby preserving its quality and hygiene. From there, it is streamed through a conduit to the factory. It is then channelled through a filter to remove any sand or other sediment, then processed through a finer filter. The water is also streamed through ultraviolet disinfection units in order to eradicate bacteria, if any, before it is routed through micron polishing filters. "At this point, the water would be crystal clear and ready to drink," Mr. Wong said.
Mr. Wong said checkpoints are also instituted "along the way", allowing them to take samples to ensure the filters are constantly in working order, in addition to cleaning the filters daily. Ozone gas is also used to ensure the water is properly disinfected. Mr. Wong said that substance is not toxic and in any event, it dissipates from the water after about 24 hours.
The managing director said his challenge for 2003 will be to get the company HACCP-certified in order to more aggressively tackle both the local and export markets. HACCP means Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, and is a systematic and preventative approach to achieve food safety standards. "We are documenting all our procedures to ensure we are guaranteeing a product that will not make somebody sick," Mr. Wong said.
Peak Bottling Company is certified by the Jamaica Bureau of Standards, with which they are now collaborating to formulate a standard for local bottled water. In addition, Mr, Wong said that as part of the safety standards, the Bureau, in collaboration with the water company, carries out a monthly test of the finished product, as well as an inspection of the plant.
